Paris Airport To Go Green withGeothermal Energy

Orly Airport, one of the two large airports serving Paris, has announced plans to use geothermal energy to slash its heating bills, according to a recent Agence France-Presse news release.

Plans call for two shafts of about one mile deep to be drilled on the perimeter of the airport to access a water table warmed by geothermal heat. The water will emerge at the surface at some 165 degrees F and be injected into the airport heating system. It will be returned into the ground at a temperature of 113 degrees F.

The project is projected to cost more than $17 million. The Orly-Quest terminal, the airport's Hilton Hotel and two business districts will be included on the system by 2011. Airport administrators hope the geothermal energy system will meet a third of the airport's heating needs and save some 7,000 tons (about a third) of its annual CO2 emissions. Two neighboring towns already use geothermal energy to meet some of their heating requirements.